


Not For A Long While

by quellthefire



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Pepper and Rhodey are trying their best, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Pre-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony misses Steve but won't admit it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-04
Updated: 2019-07-04
Packaged: 2020-06-07 18:06:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19474507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quellthefire/pseuds/quellthefire
Summary: “Okay, we’ll figure out another way then. We always do.”Rhodey knew that there was no other option. Sooner or later they’d have to call on Captain America. He just hoped Tony would forgive him. That wasn’t seeming like a likely outcome right now.———Little angsty piece about Tony post-Civil War





	Not For A Long While

“No fucking way.”

“Tony, please, I don’t know what else to do. I’m not happy about it either, but we need him.”

Tony leaned against the wall of his workshop, could feel a migraine coming on. 

“Rhodey, we’re not discussing this. Steve made it clear whose side he was on when he left me for dead in the middle of Siberia. Whatever trust we had built got frozen and smashed to pieces months ago”

“Technically he didn’t leave you for dead, he sent a message to Pepper to alert her that you needed help.”

Tony glared at his lifelong friend, resenting the fact that Rhodey knew about this. It was easier to tell himself Steve didn’t care. Easier to believe that they were never friends in the first place. The alternative was too messy, and Tony was tired of mess. He wanted order. He wanted peace. He wanted to go back to the life he’d had before Steve Rogers had pummeled him into the ground with Bucky’s help. 

“I don’t care,” Tony said quietly, turning to fiddle with a microchip on his workshop table. It was barely more than a whisper, and was completely unlike the person Rhodey had known Tony to be. It was startling to see the sorrow on his friends face, and in his voice.

“Okay, we’ll figure out another way then. We always do.”

Rhodey knew that there was no other option. Sooner or later they’d have to call on Captain America. He just hoped Tony would forgive him. That wasn’t seeming like a likely outcome right now. 

“For the love of God, Tony, what is your—,” Pepper stormed in, but halted when she saw the pained wince on Rhodey’s face. She had spent years learning Tony’s quirks. The self-deprecating humor hidden behind the mask of ego. The aggravatingly single minded approach he took to projects. The generosity he personified, which was probably him trying to make up for his father’s selfishness. 

She had seen it all over the many years of working with him. But the past few months were different. He was quieter, more likely to self-implode than to lash out. It wasn’t him. And it was starting to get dysfunctional. She needed him to be the flashy asshole he’d always been, and she was starting to doubt that Tony would ever return. 

Siberia had changed him. Not in colossal ways, but rather in minute ones. To the world he seemed like the cocky bastard he’d always been. But Pepper and Rhodey knew better. The mask he put on was becoming more and more clear. And the man underneath all that flash was lonely and vulnerable, afraid of what he was capable of. 

Pepper self corrected and finished the sentence she’d started as she walked in. “What is your new wifi password? I’ve been trying to log in all day and it says it’s incorrect.” She was honestly a little proud of that bluff. Tony had an annoyingly rigid habit of changing the password for security measures, so it was entirely reasonable that it was what Pepper had come to ask him. 

He glanced up, distracted, and only just now realizing that Pepper had come into the room. She sighed, disappointed at how distant his mind had become. “The wifi login, please.”

“WARMACHINEROX, all caps, with an X,” Tony replied evenly. 

Heat crept up into Rhodey’s face, mortified at the mention of his old password. He thought Tony had forgotten about that incident. He hadn’t mentioned it for quite a while. It seemed he had just been biding his time to torment Rhodey. 

Tony gave a small wink to his friend and focused back on the microchip. It was forced, not given with the ease he once had. But he was still Tony. Tony who never forgot the embarrassing things they’d done. But he was altered for sure. 

Pepper rolled her eyes, and huffed, “Well at least that’s still the same.”

They watched as Tony kept many tiny adjustments, muttering under his breath, oblivious to their presence in a way that was oddly reassuring. 

One day he might be okay. Today was better than most, which wasn’t saying much. But one day. One day he might be able to move on. Might be able to think clearly, see clearly that they’d both made mistakes. They’d both been afraid to trust each other, to actually communicate. Tony was coming back piece by piece. One day he might be willing to rebuild that trust. But not today, not for a long while, they assumed.

After long moments of silent conversation in which Pepper gestured wildly between Rhodey and Tony, and Rhodey gave her dismissive looks to indicate there was no way that they were getting through to him today, they eventually decided to leave Tony to his work. He hadn’t seemed to notice his friend’s distress, hadn’t even been aware when Pepper walked away in a huff, wishing she could shake the man into his old self. He just kept making adjustments to the chip, sighing occasionally when it wouldn’t cooperate, and muttering equations under his breath in equal measure. 

Maybe one day they’d get their Tony back. But not today. Not for a long time.


End file.
